


Five Times Doctor Chris Beck Was Cock Blocked

by strifechaos



Category: The Martian (2015), The Martian - All Media Types, The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: M/M, Miscommunication, UST, five times fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 09:33:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5534882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strifechaos/pseuds/strifechaos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times that Dr. Chris Beck found himself cock blocked while flirting with Mark Watney.</p>
<p>And one time Mark finally caught a clue.</p>
<p>Spoilers for the movie and the book.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Doctor Chris Beck Was Cock Blocked

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thisissirius](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisissirius/gifts).



1\. Selection Process

NASA’s selection process for the latest astronaut class is outright brutal. 

Beck had originally submitted his application as a cross between a dare and his sister’s hounding that he’d be perfect for the program, “After all, Chris, you’ve always been a First Class Space Cadet!”. 

It wasn’t until two months later when he’d received a call from a number he didn’t recognize and a NASA representative was requesting him to come down to Florida for the week long stage of the selection process, that it really started to be a possibility. 

NASA has him bunking with an outgoing guy from Chicago, who refuses to let Beck sit in their shared room and read medical journals the first night, insisting that Beck come out with him for exploring the compound and surrounding town.

The next day the medical screening is strange, if only because he’d long grown used to being on the other side of the examinations and questions. Beck’s nerves over the personal interviews start to thaw at the two employee’s laid back nature and easy going attitude. That night Watney – his roommate, regales him with quips from his own interview that leave Beck in stitches, laughing so hard he isn’t sure he’ll be able to breathe ever again.

Once everyone has jumped through enough hoops, a general orientation is delivered to the remaining candidates. By this point, there are only about two-percent of the original applicants, and Beck is high on life and the dream of going into space.

Watney tries to cajole him into drinks but Beck has tunnel vision on all the myriad of diseases and medical complications that could occur in outer space travel. He’s struck with the immediate need to supplement his knowledge stat, so he turns down Watney’s request that he come out for drinks, despite the guy’s easy going grin and distracting dimples, and instead uploads the latest articles from The New England Journal of Medicine onto his tablet and spends the next four hours before his taxi arrives binge reading the latest developments and discoveries in medicine, only a little remorseful over the lost opportunity.

 

2\. Group Training

Training as a candidate is intense. The people that have reached this stage are all so dedicated to the program, to showing that they can handle any task given that some days Beck wakes up exhausted. Some candidates are downright cutthroat in appealing to the higher ups, hoping to be selected for a crew. It’s a flashback to his Fellowship program after med school all over again. 

Beck would be more worried about passing the two year period of training and being chosen for a mission, he really would, it’s just that today he’s with Team Juliet Lima, or as Mark Watney, his roommate from the previous stage, insists on calling it “Team Justice League, it wasn’t that hard of a code to crack, Commander -- you don’t have to be so top secret about it, we all know how to keep a secret identity”. Johanssen had given him nothing but shit about the nickname, from what Beck can put together they have some weird inside joke about calling the other a geek or nerd, which makes no sense because from what Beck can tell they’re both the biggest nerds he’s ever seen – and he’s spent the last couple months at NASA.

You aren’t supposed to pick a favorite team to work with, (even though everyone does, they’re only human after all) because NASA gets the last say in who will be selected for missions, and being flexible with who you can work with can only increase your likelihood to be picked.

Still, Team Justice League is Beck’s favorite team to do group training exercises with, and not just because Watney’s on the team, though the extra eye candy doesn’t hurt. Those arms distract Beck likes no body’s business.

The crew is run with Lewis as lead, and Beck is a little bit terrified of the Navy woman, she reminds him of Zoe from Firefly – complete badass who won’t take shit from anyone but able to be even tempered the entire time she’s giving a dressing down to the offender. She doesn’t raise her voice just gives this ‘I’m disappointed in you’ tone and it completely levels even the biggest of douche bags, and there are plenty of them floating around. During the first couple days a few of guys were hassling a female recruit and by the time Lewis was done with them Beck had been surprised they hadn’t wet themselves, although he was pretty sure their balls had crawled up into their bodies in abstract fear of the military woman. Total. Bad. Ass.

Mark and Rick Martinez, no matter what group they are part of that day, have a bizarre competition going on for who can outdo the other, in what ranges depending on the day and the challenge given out for the training, it tends to be even weirder when they are sorted into the same group. Their cross experiences, from the Army for Martinez and international academia and fieldwork for Watney, means that they come up with the strangest games with the most abstract, intricate of rules that Beck’s ever heard.

Alex Vogel, a German chemist and astrophysicist, joins in on Watney and Martinez’s shenanigans when he happens to be paired with either man in a group. Today it’s a contest to see who can complete the obstacle course without using their hands or saying anything with the letter ‘s’ as the first or last letter. Martinez had been winning until Watney had tackled him, leaving Vogel to take the lead.

The last of Team Justice League is Beth Johanssen, she isn’t as outgoing as Watney or Martinez, but Beck’s in several groups with the computer expert, and they gel well together. The six of them almost always stomp the competition when put together, and from the whispers that Beck’s heard through the grapevine, NASA has definitely noticed.

Lewis and Johanssen wait at the finish line with Beck as the rest of their group scrambles through the obstacle course for a final round.

“They do realize that they aren’t going to get any bonus points with the scorekeepers for completing the course multiple times, right?” Johanssen blurts, face scrunched up. She’s out of breath and sweaty, her hair pulled up into a halfhearted ponytail, and her workout gear is damp from her own efforts.

She’s been put through her paces today and Beck wonders if she’d be open to him tweaking her cardio routine. All of them have personal training they have to accomplish every day, NASA wants every candidate to live up to their full potential and for Team Justice League their computer monkey is typically the least active, the physical trials take a lot out of even the most physically minded candidates. (Mark’s biceps are pretty impressive in Beck’s personal opinion.)

Before he can make the offer to Johanssen, Vogel passes the finish line for the final time, Martinez and Watney almost directly behind him. Watney is just a hairsbreadth ahead of the Army candidate, and lets out an explosive ‘whoop!’ right in Martinez’s face.

“Oh yeah, that how we do it boi!” 

“Ugh. Can we please stop with the game today?” Johanssen begs, hands clasped in front of her, eyes aimed beseechingly at Watney, who in an attempt to not break the ‘s’ rule , had spoken almost entirely in slang the entire day.

“You sound ridiculous, Watney.” Beck tacks on to Johanssen’s plea; Vogel at least had mostly stuck to speaking German which Martinez had claimed was a cop out. 

Mark’s brow furrows and he pouts, and grown men should not be able to pout and still look fuckable in Beck’s opinion; it’s just not fair to his libido. It doesn’t help that Mark is out of breath, and dripping with sweat, hair tousled and his arms and legs streaked with mud and grass. Together with Martinez and Vogel, he’s run the course close to twelve times, and still looks like he’d go another few rounds if Martinez challenged him to a do over. It’s giving Beck ideas. Bad, dirty, wonderfully distracting ideas.

Mark relents, much to the relief of Beck’s libido. “Fine, you party poopers!”

“Yeah well every party needs one, so I guess Team Juliet Lima can afford to have two,” Martinez smirks, wrapping an arm around both Johanssen’s and Beck’s shoulders.

“Oh man, Martinez! You reek!” Johanssen squeals, twisting out of his grip and swatting at him when he lurches to the side to loop his arm around her shoulder again, forcing Beck to be tugged with him.

“That’s the smell of a hard working man! It’s like nectar to the ladies!”

“Yeah right, that’s like a calling card for flies,” she ducks away but Rick is quicker than he looks and catches up, “Ugh no don’t get your stank on my clothes!”

Martinez entirely abandons Beck to chase Johanssen, she’s making a beeline back towards the locker room, Lewis looks like she’s tempted to call an end to their antics, but Beth hasn’t tried to deck Martinez yet, and she’s got a grin stretched across her face, so their leader lets the two horse around a little longer. Beck figures it’s probably good for Johanssen to come out of her shell a little more, especially if they all end up on a mission together.

Watney slopes up until he’s even with Beck’s shoulder, keeping a fair amount of distance between them, probably due to Johanssen’s comment about the smell. A small part of Beck wishes Mark would wrap his arm around his shoulder like Martinez had, and in a panic blurts out the first thing that comes to mind.

“We should go out.” A spike of adrenaline floods his system, flight or fight kicking in.

Mark just grins, “That’s a great idea!”

Beck is still shocked that Mark’s agreed so readily, but can feel the curve of a smile pulling at his lips. 

Yes!

Mark continues, blithely unaware, “I’ll see where the others wanna go to celebrate!”

Beck is pretty certain that this is what it feels like mentally to be physically smashed in the back of the head with a heavy object. Before he can get more than ‘whuu?’ out, Mark’s already shouting ahead to the rest of their group to see who is up for a night out.

 

3\. Arrival on Mars

Martinez turns to Watney with a completely straight face and makes an announcement.

“I just feel like I should let you guys all know, that I am officially the first man to pass gas on Mars.”

Beck rolls his eyes, Lewis groans and Watney cracks up.

Johanssen grins, “You’re definitely two minutes too late to claim that title, Martinez.”

Beck is pretty sure Watney is about five seconds from rolling on the ground laughing, Vogel is smirking and Martinez is pouting like a five-year old that was just told he couldn’t have a hot fudge sundae for breakfast.

Lewis turns to Rick with furrowed brow. “Is that why you agreed to this mission?”

They’d had discussions on the way to Mars about who would be allowed to be the First to Do This On Mars! Once their duties are squared away for the Sol, they begin in earnest to cross items off their list.

-0-

“Oh! First kiss on Mars! Come on, Johanssen, lay one on me!” Mark leers over the top at her, going so far as to give the programmer a lascivious wink.

“No way!” Johanssen denies, cackling and shoving him away from her.

Undeterred, Watney turns to the Commander. “Lewis?”

She folds her arms over her chest and stares him down. “Not gonna happen, Watney.”

“Beck?”

Beck’s stomach lunges and it’s on the tip of his tongue to jokingly agree, privately more excited than he wants to admit but Martinez fake gasps loudly, gaining the crew’s attention.

Rick motions to his own lips. “What?! You’d pass up a chance to take these smackeroonies for a test drive?”

Mark scoffs. “Maybe I wanted the first kiss on Mars to be someone who didn’t try and get the first fart, you ever think of that, Martinez?”

Martinez folds his arms across his chest and pouts. “Your loss, plant boy!”

“Pucker up and lay one on him, Beckers!” Johanssen corals him towards Mark, smirking knowingly.

Beck groans, mostly for show and a little to hide the worried ping that hits his gut because if their computer monkey has picked up on his crush he just might be doomed to be the First Man to Die of Embarrassment On Mars.

“Don’t I get a say in the matter?” Beck internally debates whether or not he’s desperate enough to take any kind of kiss he can get from Mark, even a joke one, or if he wants to take the high ground and refuse on principle. It’s been a long dry spell since his last kiss though, and Watney is turning that charmer smile on him that has a tendency to do funny things to Beck’s stomach. Before he can make up his mind, Vogel grapples Watney by the ears and side of his head and plants a kiss on his forehead, followed by one on each check.

“Happy, da?” He rolls his eyes and goes back to the email on his tablet.

 

 

4\. Communication Established

Mark thinks he has feelings for Johanssen.

Mark thinks he’s in love with Johanssen. 

What. The. Hell?

Beck can’t even summon the proper level of befuddlement that such a thought deserves. After Mark, who Johanssen has pointed out is everyone’s favorite; Beck would agree that he’s probably closest with Vogel and Johanssen. Lewis and Martinez have the military mindset and background that draws them to one another, even if they both served under different branches; it’s a common thread that ties them together. Vogel and Johanssen can debate and talk about their respective fields until the cows come home, or more relevantly – until their crewmates fall asleep in the Hermes designated rec room. On the journey out, Beck had split most of his shift off time with Alex, Mark and Beth – though really with only six of them on the ship it’s hard to spend time one on one with anyone.

The loss of Mark had devastated the entire crew. The death of a member their little crew—a sixth of their world, had effected them all deeply, but Beck wasn’t surprised that the married members of the crew had made it a point to reach out to their other halves more often since Mark died. Beck had spoken more with his sister and parents in the last two months than the entire journey out. Johanssen, from what Beck knew, had done similarly with her own parents but it wasn’t the same type of connection that the majority of the crew had back home with their husband and wives, so it was only natural for them to become closer and rely on one another for emotional support in dealing with the loss of Mark.

And then coping with their apparent abandonment of Mark.

It was worse than his death.

Reasonably, Beck knew that he’d been in love with his crewmate for over three years but anytime he’d come close to confessing had ended horribly wrong. 

Hell even asking Mark out had a tendency to backfire. Either the guy really wasn’t interested or they had epic levels of miscommunication going on. Which Beck was leaning more and more towards considering that Watney seemed to be under the illusion that Beck wasn’t gay – not interested in dick.

Beck might have been hung up on Mark but he’d dated since he’d met the man. Never anyone serious or long-term but the NASA candidacy program was rough on a social life, and once they’d been selected for a mission things had only become even more intense so the dating scene fell to the wayside once space time was on the table. 

But in love with Johanssen?

She was about as close an equivalent to a ‘bro’ as Beck was likely to have but he’d never imagined a non-platonic relationship with her. 

Apparently Watney had.

 

5\. Rescue

They are going to rescue Watney. Even if Beck has to blackmail Vogel into letting him off his leash so he can chase after their crewmate untethered – they’re bringing their man back. 

It doesn’t come to that, but it’s so close that Beck can’t breathe, not until they’re back on Hermes, Mark is surprisingly docile in his grip as Vogel reels them back in but Beck’s mind is handling a rollercoaster of crazy right now, it’s all he can do to call up the steady, logical doctor mindset so that he can start diagnosing his patient once they’re back to the ship.

The crew can’t gather around Mark and celebrate just how thrilled and ecstatic they are to have Mark back, although the comms are a whirl of voices, the thrum of a successful rescue is overwhelming them all. 

It’s been so surreal, all the planning and time they had spent focusing on their rescue mission of their lost crewmate and it paid off in the end. Now they just have to get home safely.

But first, Beck needs to check out the damage that’s been done to Watney since they last saw him. He’s the first person to really see Mark in over a year, and he’s glad for his abilities as a doctor because he’s not sure he’d be able to concentrate on the mission until he was sure that Mark was ok otherwise. The damage from a person rocketing off the surface of Mars and into space in a jury-rigged rocket are going to be severe, and that doesn’t even touch on what mishaps Mark has gotten into during his stay on Mars.

The civilian in him is just so happy to have Mark back that he just wants to pin him the nearest wall and kiss him senseless. He instructs Mark to wait for him to get out of his own EVA suit before trying to get his own off. It takes him longer than usual, his hands shaking from adrenaline and relief at their successful mission. He really just wants to suck on Mark’s tongue, as proof that he’s really here back with them and that this isn’t just another dream.

That’s until Mark takes off his space suit, and overwhelming stench of a person not showering and being in the same clothes for months comes and punches him in the nose. Beck’s eyes water and he takes a few steps back.

Mark, unaware, strips out of the space suit, although he wavers when he starts to bend – his ribs must have been pretty busted up from the rocket off the planet. Beck forces himself to step up and help Mark out, it’s the fastest check he’s ever completed on a patient.

Beck categories the injuries and checks for anything that would be fatal or need immediate attention but there isn’t anything that won’t wait ten minutes for Mark to shower, thank god. 

+1.

Mark is on strict bed rest for the next couple days. If he weren’t so exhausted he’d complain, as it is he’s having a hard time believing that he managed to pull it off, not without a hell of a lot of help but still, he didn’t die on Mars! He’s back with his crew! It is beyond weird to see other people again, but oh so welcome. Martinez parks himself at his bedside when he’s off duty and updates him on the ship’s status, the gossip.

When he gets around to mentioning the issue with the heat in his old bunk, and Martinez’ as well, Mark points out a potential fix that should work and let everyone have their own space again.

“Wait – so they’ve been sleeping together but not sleeping together?” Mark demands, put out. He’d been pretty direct in his message to Beck.

Martinez gives him the ‘why are you so stupid’ look, and Mark is sure that there’s something he’s missing, some variable that’s been left out of the equation but he’s been alone on Mars for a year, social graces have slipped to the wayside in his forced hermit lifestyle. Not that he was so great at them before.

“Mark, you realize that boy is gay as the day is long, right?”

No. No, he really hadn’t. A few interactions in the past start to make more sense though and Mark is starting to feel like the dumbest man on Mars . . . except he’s not on Mars anymore, so he’s really just the dumbest man on Hermes!

Mark flounders for a comeback but settles on a rough head shake. It’s been a rough couple of days, so sue him!

Martinez gapes at him for a little and then teases the ever living shit out of him until he’s due back on duty.

-0-

“So I know it’s a few months off, and you don’t have to agree but I uh I was planning on getting some pizza once I got back to Chicago, would you uh wanna come?”

Beck blinks. “Are you asking me to meet your parents, Watney?”

“Yeah, but maybe we could go out afterwards, get a drink? Just the two of us?” Mark really doesn’t want to screw this up, he feels uncharacteristically nervous and Beck staring at him with a dropped jaw isn’t exactly a balm for his ego. He’s about to back track like a boss but Beck just nods and grins, eyes lighting up like Mark remembers from back during their week of cohabitation at NASA when Mark had made a joke about comics.

“Yes, definitely.”

\--0—

The End.


End file.
